February 2005 | Lab for Those who Work with Volatile & Challenging Young People
plus follow up Lab
Teachers and artists who work with young people with complex needs have to be immensely adaptable. Demands on them are huge and call on a wide range of skills, many of which have little to do with the teaching of the curriculum. Burnout is common and turnover high. The aim of the Lab was to provide the opportunity and resources for these practitioners to share and support existing good practice, to be free to think broadly and imaginatively and to create new ways of teaching and learning.
This Lab was a bittersweet success for the PAL team. It was the brainchild of Labs of Learning Director Viv Harris, who had designed the Lab, recruited the creative team and raised the funding. Very sadly, in autumn 2004, Viv died after a short illness. We were determined to see her work come to fruition and with the help of the Lab creative team and the support of our funders we were able to make it happen as Viv planned.
The Lab began a discussion about the quality of training in the field which prompted the convening of a colloquium in 2006, followed by the establishment of the Training Observatory, an independent databased website dedicated to co-ordinating and communicating key information on CPD and training for artists and other key professionals working with children and young people in challenging and volatile cotexts..
The image on the right links to a full report of the Lab by Prof. Anne Douglas.
Lab Co-directors
Jan Sharkey-Dodds
Siobhan O’Neill
Lab Creative Team
Angela de Castro - clown
Rod Harris - sculptor
Anna Herrmann - Head of Education, Clean Break
Lab Participants
Mal Bassi - drama and circus skills mentor
Susan Benn - PAL Director
Gershon Berkowitz - documentary maker and video facilitator
Susan Bonn - art teacher
Suzanne Davis - drama therapist
Emily Doherty - drama outreach worker, Streets Alive Theatre Company
Avril Douglas - SENCO and Head of English at Phil Edwards Centre
Jo Flanders - youth and conflict project worker
Emma Ghafur - drama animateur
Peter Gilpin - PAL chef
Jules Graham - Behaviour Support teacher
Jeni Howland - Lab co-ordinator
Dwayne Hoy - PE teacher
Robert Kellard - art and sculpture teacher
Lynnette Louth - Primary art and RE teacher
Tony McBride - community arts practitioner
Fatima McCloskey - advisory teacher
Edward Nelson - trainer / actor /fundraiser
Karen O’Brien - musician and DJ
Jon Owen - musician and writer
Marion Taylor - Head of English, Francis Barber Pupil Referral Unit
Marta Trojenowska - drama and circus skills mentor
Diana Tye - centre co-ordinator, Harringey Pupil Support Centre
Lab Evaluator
Anne Douglas
Visitors
Julia Bracewell - Commonwork Education Officer
Mary Crowley - PAL development consultant
Rhiannon Harrison - Development Support, ECOTEC Research and Consulting
Hilary Hodgson - Head of Education, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Angela Howe - teacher
Bob Lockyer - PAL Chairman
Angus McLewin - Consultant for Arts Council England working with Arts and Crime strategies and with Creative Partnerships
Simon Richey - Assistant Director (Education), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Joyce Wilson - Head of Combined Arts, Arts Council England
Funded by
Arts Council England
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Mercers’ Company
Foyle Foundation
